A YOUNG jewellery shop assistant who was used by others to carry ecstasy tablets into Global Gathering has narrowly escaped being jailed.
Jaymie Roney tearfully pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing MDMA tablets with intent to supply it at the Global Gathering festival in July last year.
The 18-year-old of Thornton-Cleverleys, near Blackpool, was sentenced to 16 months detention suspended for 12 months and was ordered to pay £400 costs.
Prosecutor Nicholas Burn said Roney was stopped and searched on her way into the annual music festival at Long Marston airfield on July 26.
In her bumbag were two containers of blue tablets which she admitted were about 80 ecstasy tablets.
Mr Burn pointed out that in fact there were 100 tablets with a potential sale value of £300 to £500.
When Roney was arrested and interviewed she said she was holding them for someone else, having come down from Blackpool with her boyfriend and two others.
Ian Speed, defending, told the judge he had an “extremely frightened young girl” before him.
Judge Peter Carr told her: “This deserves prison, if only to send out the message that even couriers are at risk – but I don’t think it needs to be immediate.”
“You stupidly allowed yourself to be used. Let this be a salutary lesson to you.”
